OEC Action Fund
134th General Assembly Scorecard

We’ve created the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Action Fund Scorecard to hold lawmakers accountable for votes that damage our environment, and to celebrate our environmental champions. The scorecard focuses on four policy areas: energy, water, public lands and democracy.

The narratives and scores included reflect the administration’s and state lawmakers’ actions on key environmental decisions and legislation during the 134th Ohio General Assembly, which spanned 2021 and 2022. You’ll get to know some of Ohio’s best environmental protectors and worst polluters.

We’ve given each chamber and the DeWine administration an overall score that takes into account their policy stances on our four key focus areas as well as an issue-area score. For the rest of the Ohio General Assembly members, you’ll see how each member voted on our key legislation, actions they took to sponsor or co-sponsor legislation, and their overall score. New to this scorecard, we also scored the action of the Ohio Redistricting Commission which failed to solidify constitutional maps for the 2022 election.

We’ve included a brief snapshot of the scorecard content below.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FULL SCORECARD UPDATE.

GOVERNOR DEWINE

While Governor DeWine started as a strong leader on land and water during his first two years, his leadership declined during the second half of his first term. The governor’s lands legacy was severely undermined by allowing fracking on Ohio’s public lands. However, at the same time his administration has championed the H2Ohio program, he also signed into law harmful water policies during the 134th General Assembly. On energy, DeWine made minor acts of defiance against utilities, but still strongly supports natural gas and fossil fuels while actively limiting the development of clean, renewable energy. His stance on democracy receives the lowest score possible given his support of anti-democratic issues. For all of these reasons, DeWine receives a low score in the OEC Action Fund’s 134th General Assembly scorecard.

FOR MORE, CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FULL SCORECARD.

OHIO HOUSE & OHIO SENATE

Despite minor steps forward, the Ohio House and Senate continued to pass policies that hurt our environment and weaken our democracy, causing both houses of the legislature to receive low scores during the 134th General Assembly.

- ENERGY -

The 134th General Assembly took some action to right some of the wrongs of the House Bill 6 scandal that occurred in the previous legislative session, but vestiges of the biggest corruption scandal in Ohio’s history — including bailouts for dirty coal plants — remain on the books.

Both the House and Senate passed House Bill 87 which allows for county utilities to sign supply contracts that last for a period of greater than 10 years. This opens avenues for long-term renewable energy partnerships with the 10 year limit now removed.

Both the Ohio Senate and House passed Senate Bill 52, one of many attacks on renewable energy during a time when we need to transition to clean energy. The bill singles out renewable energy and decides to treat it differently in the regulatory approval process than all other forms of energy generation. It puts highest levels of regulation on wind and solar farms while carbon-polluting natural gas goes untouched.

House Bill 201 further compounds this problem. The bill bars local governments from passing resolutions that would limit or prohibit access to natural gas despite the fact that no city has put an ordinance like this in place. The legislature pushed a bill to solve a nonexistent problem and further protect gas industries rather than let the free and competitive markets develop and decide between renewable and fossil fuel energy.

Finally, House Bill 507 passed during the Lame Duck period, and was signed by Governor DeWine in early 2023, further protecting fossil fuel special interests. In addition to the serious implications this has for Ohio’s public lands, legislators erroneously labeled natural gas as a source of green energy when amending and ultimately passing House Bill 507.

All three of these bills combine to show that the House and Senate are not acting in the interest of the people. They continue to serve fossil fuel companies first before they do what is best for the health of our people and the environment.

Ohio House Energy Score: 2 / Ohio Senate Energy Score: 3.33

- DEMOCRACY -

In 2021, the Ohio General Assembly passed Senate Bill 258, which implemented unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional maps (as ruled upon by the Ohio Supreme Court).

House Bill 294, and its companion, House Bill 458, moved through Lame Duck session with the goal of creating new and harsher barriers for people attempting to vote in Ohio elections. HB 458 became the ultimate vehicle for these provisions when it was amended in the Senate to include strict voter identification provisions. Governor DeWine signed this bill in early 2023.

The Ohio House Government Oversight Committee also considered House Joint Resolution 6 during Lame Duck from November through December of 2022. Sponsored by Representative Brian Stewart with support from Secretary of State Frank LaRose, HJR 6 would have directly impacted Ohioans’ right to direct democracy. While it didn’t make it to the floor of the House, it did advance in the 135th General Assembly as SJR 2 and was on the August 8th, 2023 special election as “Issue 1”.

For these reasons, we give the Ohio House and Senate the minimum possible score on democracy policy.

Ohio House Democracy Score: 0 / Ohio Senate Democracy Score: 0

- LAND -

During the Lame Duck session, the Ohio House and Senate continuously added amendments to House Bill 507 altering it from a bill about poultry, to a policy that threatens our public lands. It is another attempt to encourage fracking in our state which will destroy our environment. For the threat that our legislature has posed to our public lands, we give the House and Senate the minimum possible score on lands policy.

Ohio House Land Score: 0 / Ohio Senate Land Score: 0

- WATER -

House Bill 175 passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law, this bill removes ephemeral streams from Ohio’s definition of protected waterways leaving over 36,000 miles of waterway at greater risk of being polluted, filled, or destroyed. This puts not only our streams, but our drinking water at risk, and undercuts the hundreds of millions of dollars provided by the H2Ohio program to create, restore and protect our waterways. For these reasons, we give the Ohio House and Senate the minimum possible score on water policy.

Ohio House Water Score: 0 / Ohio Senate Water Score: 0

FOR INDIVIDUAL LAWMAKER SCORES, CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FULL SCORECARD.

OHIO REDISTRICTING COMMISSION

The Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund works to safeguard the integrity and accessibility of Ohio’s democracy. We advocate for a healthy democracy because, without a healthy democracy, we cannot have a healthy environment. In practice, working for a healthy democracy means that we protect and expand voting rights so all eligible Ohioans have an accessible path to vote. We also advocate for fair redistricting processes without political gerrymandering to ensure every community has fair representation in state and national legislatures. We must highlight the anti-democratic actions taken by the Ohio Redistricting Commission during the 134th General Assembly.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission passed more than a few gerrymandered maps over the course of its tenure in 2021 and 2022. While the Ohio Statehouse passed the first gerrymandered congressional map in 2021 (through Senate Bill 258), the Ohio Redistricting Commission similarly passed a gerrymandered congressional map in 2022. Every single map passed by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, statehouse or congressional, was found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Importantly, the decisions of the Ohio Redistricting Commission followed partisan lines on almost every vote. The Republican members of the Commission intentionally ignored the Ohio Supreme Court’s rulings regarding gerrymandering, stalling the clock until federal courts intervened and enforced the most “administratively” usable map. The actions of the Republican Commission members were solely to benefit their party, rather than the people of Ohio. Their gerrymandered maps ignored communities of interest and ignored the will of Ohio voters, who overwhelmingly voted for anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendments in 2015 and 2018. Despite the ultimate Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling that these district maps are unconstitutional and gerrymandered, elections moved forward in November 2022 based upon these unconstitutionally drawn districts.

The minority Democrat members of the Commission, Senator Sykes, former House Minority Leader Sykes—and her replacement, current House Minority Leader Russo—continuously voted against every gerrymandered map. Their choices were in pursuit of fairness and democracy, rather than partisan power.